More than 30 maritime industry leaders from across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland attended the ABS Northern Europe Committee to hear about the latest ABS advancements in sustainability and classification services.
“We are pioneering new sustainability strategies and services to support our clients and members through their decarbonization journey. Because the sustainability challenge is too big for any one company to meet on its own, we are leading industry collaboration with joint development projects with partners all over the world. Thanks to our deep roots in Northern Europe, our committee includes the diverse expertise of many knowledgeable stakeholders, which is a powerful resource to focus on these regulatory and technological challenges,” said Christopher J. Wiernicki, ABS Chairman, President and CEO.
The Committee heard about the best-in-class safety performance of ABS; how superior Port State Control performance and strong fleet safety performance underline its focus on safety and its mission. Committee members were also briefed on the latest developments in the dynamic regulatory environment and given a detailed breakdown of the industry’s sustainability challenges and ABS’ services for the industry.
“Due to COVID-19 we have for the past two years had to operate in a very difficult maritime environment. The fact that we are now able to meet also physically in the ABS Northern Europe Regional Committee and through the Committee strengthen our cooperation is truly liberating,” said Palle Laursen, Maersk Chief Technical Officer and Chairman of ABS’ Northern Europe Regional Committee.
ABS continues to hold a leadership position as a global class organization in Northern Europe, where it provides a range of survey, audit and engineering services from Copenhagen, Arhus, Frederikshavn and Esbjerg in Denmark; Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen and Stavanger in Norway; Gothenburg in Sweden and Turku in Finland, in addition to its industry-recognized local engineering, survey and sustainable regional marine and offshore operations.
The Committee meetings are a forum for ABS members, including owners, operators, charterers, and industry representatives from flag Administrations, owner associations, and the shipbuilding and insurance sectors, to come together with ABS leaders and discuss industry issues and developments.  These forums are an important part of an ongoing dialogue with industry to address technical, operational and regulatory challenges.